The Meta-Verse

THE META-VERSE

This afternoon, I met a verse creeping from my hand.
It seemed to be examining the order of the land.
I asked it for enlightenment; I didn’t understand.
“You realize,” it said, “that much of poetry is bland.”

“My role,” it said, “is simple: I’ll encourage you to see
The fallacies and figments that comprise our poetry.
We think we understand the promise of technology;
But really all we’ve done is make some fancy bumblebees.

“These digital swarms surprise us; into gaming land we go
Looking for new profits, interactions, ways to grow
Our brains, our consciousnesses; and while looking high and low
Abandon souls and nature. Therefore, we think we know

“That poetry exists inside our virtual machines:
‘A bot creates this doggerel,’ we’ll say; and what we mean
Is that our world, once charmed, is now a digitalized being;
That, therefore, those who still insist the universe does teem

“With life; well, we’ll simply say, your poetry is old:
What use are words of love when there is bitcoin to be sold
And NFTs and slews of things that represent new gold,
New acronyms to isolate the feeble from the bold?

“And once again we’ll prove, despite technology that’s new,
That one man’s declaration has redefined the stew
We understand as living. Stay, now, did he somehow brew
A gilded vision leading us – to be, to live, to do –

“As though we’ve never done before; as though we cannot find
Our inspirations in our souls, our promise, in our minds?
Do we prefer to run into new chains that will us bind
As surely as the ones we feel we now must leave behind?”

“Harsh, words, indeed,” I said; “Pray, tell me, how is it that you
Are so appointed, thus, to tell us what we all must do?
What door was opened, gate flung wide; upon which wind that blew
Into our lives came you, as one to know all that is new?”

“I am the meta-verse,” it said, “a verse describing verse,
The verse we call our living, and for better or for worse,
We are all that we have, as both a blessing and a curse:
Choose wisely, then, my friend, as you define your universe.”